Unleash the power of open financial data – join the Development Data Challenge!

The World Bank wants a “world free of poverty.” Facebook wants a world that’s more “open and connected.” Can we help realize both these dreams with open financial data? With ever more open data on the finances and activities of development organizations and governments available (and with much of that data becoming available in standard formats like IATI[2]), how do we go beyond transparency and get to development impact?

Join us for an afternoon of ideation, inspiration, and learning as we work together to come up with ideas and solutions to make the world a better place.

The DDC aims to answer the question:

How can open financial data be utilized for positive development impact?

To help narrow our efforts in exploring this challenge (while leaving plenty of room for flexibility) we’ve selected a number of topics for group ideation:

Aid Effectiveness

Assurance & Anti-Corruption

Citizen Engagement/Community

Connectivity/Big Data

Procurement/Contracts

Mobile & Web Applications

Data Journalism

Design/Data Visualization

You’ll be free to join any of the topic tables (or switch in between), but each topic table will be asked to come up with a collective idea that will be evaluated on its creativity/innovation, potential impact, collaboration, feasibility and implementation plan. Selected ideas will be presented to a Random Hacks of Kindness[11] hackathon taking place the next day on Saturday June 2-3.

Your input and feedback are most welcome. Let us know if there are other topics we should explore and feel free to suggest financial development datasets as well.

So on June 1, come with questions, come with answers, and plan to leave enriched, inspired, and possibly equipped with some good ideas for further development.